England in West Indies: Joe Root grasps opportunity in positive start to new era - Jonathan Agnew

It comes with caveats but England's first outing of this new era was pleasing — there were definitely more positives than negatives.

The draw against West Indies in Antigua can be seen as a 'winning' one.

England have looked fresh and energetic, clearly keen to show it is the start of a new era after their humiliating Ashes defeat, and the way they went about trying to force a win on the final day surprised people.

You would not see many captains declaring as Joe Root did with a lead below 300 and 71 overs left in the first Test of a three-match series.

Root knows after what happened in Australia he could very well have lost the captaincy. As a result he looks very keen to really set England off in this new direction.

His declaration showed positive intent and the fact England are embarking on this «reset» of their Test cricket played a part in the decision-making.

England were ultimately stopped by a dreadful pitch that did nothing for the sport, but the players seemed to respond.

Watching here in Antigua, there does feel like there has been a bit of a lift in the England players in general.

That is not because veteran bowlers James Anderson and Stuart Broad, both dropped for this series, are not playing — far from it. But there has clearly been a lot of discussion about how as a team they are going to pick themselves up after Australia and move forward on this course for the future.

England were 48-4 on the first day on a featherbed of a pitch so I am by no means completely sold but I do like what I have seen.

You can't take away the fact that from that position they ended up with three centurions and were the side more likely to win.

That is a positive sign.

One of the big pluses is that Root himself again scored a century.